I had to laugh at an e-mail I got yesterday, from a lady who had contacted me a couple of years ago to ask me if it was true that most RV parks have a ten year rule and will not allow RVs older than that in.

As I said in ablog post about the Ten Year Rule back then, yes, it does exist. And no, it’s nothing to be worried about. For years we traveled in a 1976 MCI bus conversion and stayed in RV parks, from upscale “resorts” to small Mom and Pop places, in every corner of this country. In all that time, we were never turned away when we pulled into a campground.

Joyce, the lady who first contacted me about the issue, said she has a very nice, very clean, 1999 Class A gas powered motorhome, and that now that she has been fulltiming for a couple of years, she realized I was right. (The world would be so much better off if everybody just accepted my word as gospel from the start.)

Joyce said that this past week was the first time she had ever been told she could not stay at an RV park, an upscale “resort” in Florida with the ten year rule. She said the young woman working behind the desk had multicolored hair, both of her arms were covered in tattoos, she had a tattoo on her neck, and several metal studs in her face. She was very polite and explained that while she was sure Joyce was a very nice lady and it was nothing personal and that her motorhome looked fine, they had to enforce the rule to keep out the “wrong kind of people, who would not fit our image or give people the wrong impression of the resort.” Joyce said she thanked the young woman for her time and left after assuring her that she definitely did not want to do anything that would hurt their image.

While Yuma, Arizona is popular with RV snowbirds, one drawback is the very hard water to be found there. In fact, it’s so bad that there are water stations like this all around town.

Before we went to Lake Havasu City for Winter Blast we filled our fresh water tank, since we would be dry camping. The water here at Santa Fe RV Park is much better, and I didn’t want to haul around that nasty Yuma stuff, so yesterday I turned off the campground water and used the Winnebago’s water pump to run the tank dry to get rid of it.

Before we leave here I’ll fill the tank again, even though we’re going back to Tucson and will have full hookups. We can carry the extra weight with no problem, and we’ve found ourselves unexpectedly stuck someplace waiting for repairs, or in a campground where the water was shut off for repairs more than once. It’s nice to be prepared.

It’s Wednesday, and that means it time for a new contest. We’re doing something different for this week’s Free Drawing. We’re giving away two audiobooks from my friend Carol Ann Newsome, A Shot in the Bark and Drool Baby, from her popular Dog Park mystery series. All you have to do is click on the Free Drawing link and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.

I wrote in Monday’s blog that I had sold 99 audiobooks so far this month, my best ever, and wondered if I would make 100. Indeed I did, as of last night I was at 106! Almost half of them have been for Dog’s Run, my mystery set in a small Ohio town in 1951. It’s got 65 reviews on Amazon so far and a very nice five star rating. I appreciate all of your support.

4 Responses to “The Wrong Impression”

Nick, I receive the digital editions , is there a way to quickly determine what state each article is about or located. maybe in the title or on Journal cover. You find unusual locations. example , I’m headed to MS and LA and was trying to find articles / locations I could visit. Your articles are timeless. Maybe in your spare time you could devise a way to make all your info easy to retrieve? (Are you laughing) Thanks for thinking about it. Penny

Dogs Run is a 5 star rating Nick. It’s time for you to quit relaxing and living like your retired and get busy on another book ………sorry just had to do it. Have a great day and take care. Your doing an excellent job and always looking forward to the next book.

I was in an RV park in Portland, OR that had the 10 year rule. The two women behind the desk had grey hair, no tattoos and no metal studs. When a couple came in to ask about moving from a nearby park to this park they were asked the age of their fifth wheel. They admitted it was 11 years old. The women behind the desk asked the model, a description of the vehicle and where it was currently parked. Based on the information they obtained from the couple they told the couple that it was obvious that their rig was only 10 years old and they entered the 10 year age in the computer. I’m not total sure if the grey hair, the multi-colored hair, the tattoos. and the metal studs have anything to do with common sense or IQ but it is worth thinking about.